The kids wanted gingerbreadmen to decorate, but didn't want them made out of gingerbread. A good grad school friend always made butter cookies for us to decorate and I loved that they weren't as sweet as typical sugar cookies. I found this recipe on food.com and even Kory, who is not a frosted cookie fan, thought they were really good. Instead of rolling into a cylinder and cutting, I rolled them out onto a floured surface and cut with cutters. I will definitely refrigerate the dough before doing this next time as the dough was very soft and hard to work with.
World's Best Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
8 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions:
1. Beat the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla together until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in the egg yolk until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once.
3. Add the flour and mix just until incorporated.
4. Scrape onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times, just until the dough smooths out.
5. Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log, wrap up and refrigerate for several hours or freeze.
6. Before baking, preheat the oven to 325°F.
7. Line your baking sheets with parchment.
8. Slice the dough into slices about 1/8" thick and place them on the sheets about an inch apart (they won't be spreading very much, but they need air room around each cookie).
9. Bake until JUST beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 16-18 minutes.
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions:
1. Beat the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla together until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in the egg yolk until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once.
3. Add the flour and mix just until incorporated.
4. Scrape onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times, just until the dough smooths out.
5. Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log, wrap up and refrigerate for several hours or freeze.
6. Before baking, preheat the oven to 325°F.
7. Line your baking sheets with parchment.
8. Slice the dough into slices about 1/8" thick and place them on the sheets about an inch apart (they won't be spreading very much, but they need air room around each cookie).
9. Bake until JUST beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 16-18 minutes.
